landscapes

An evening in Baixa

The previous post in this series is here..

After our guide dropped us off in Baixa, our first stop was the Elevator. San told me that standing in line to go up that elevator was not worth it. So we walked up the steps to the streets above and got pictures.. when we walked back down it was early evening and there was an intense craving for chai and desi food. We did not get a good read of the map. So we ate at the first indian food we could find. It was decent food but we simply could not sit inside the restaurant as it had a weird smell. Later we learned that there are places with nicer seating and less smoke.

Then we decided to walk all the way to the other end of the main road to the water front. I had a tough time catching up to my wife as she was running everywhere and my ability to follow was limited by the number of butter naans that had been consumed. It was an amazing evening with the sky putting on a show for us at the waterfront.

After spending an hour or so taking pictures and watching the street performers, we walked back to our hotel.

A video highlight reel ..

We were going on an all day packaged tour the following day. So we went to sleep early. My local tourguide had already visited two of the three places we were going to see and had already started describing it to me!

Our first day in Portugal was a hit !

Pleasanton Ridge regional park - Castleridge

This has been a busy weekend with a lot of yoga doubles and a nice hike.. there was also some singing involved! Busy but happy..

The hike was in Pleasanton ridge regional park from the Castleridge trail head. We did an 8+ mile loop which took us ~4 hours. We did good time given it just keeps going up in the initial part of the hike. It was an hours drive almost for us to get to the trailhead and given it was post lunch, starting the steep climb was a slow affair.

We saw a lot of hare, turkey, deer, red tailed hawks and frogs today!

Could have waited another 5 mintues after reaching the top. There was a solitary bench right after we managed to have tea standing up and trying to juggle tea and bhajjis, standing up.

we kept clicking as we walked today!

It was good we didn’t stop much today. Managed to come down before it got dark. As a treat to ourselves, we stopped at Thirupathi Bhimas and refilled four time he calories we burned on the hike in 1/4th the time!

Here are the nature pics from the hike..

There were like 10 frogs that surrounded my feet when getting close to the water to take this shot. Lots of frogs! First time seeing them up close in these numbers!

and a short video highlights reel.

While San and our friends would like to visit this again, I am not. Great trails, amazing views etc.. but there is a section of the trail where one big tree has fallen and there are another 3-4 trees in this section that could fall anytime! Not a big fan of trails which are not maintained well. After a lady lost her life because of a falling tree in our local park last year, very hesitant to go through trails like this!

Did enjoy the hike thoroughly today!

Another hike for the long weekend

Saturday was 2 back to back yoga classes and a 9 mile hike. Sunday was just one yoga class followed by a 6 mile hike. We are slowing things down.. by Tuesday physical activity will be restricted to a yoga class if we are lucky and some walking up and down office buildings..

This time we went to Quicksilver with a different group, thanks to the little one.

We have hiked this park before but this time there was a lot of water in the creek. The colors were vibrant after the rains but the trail was a little bit tricky with slush covering most of it.

We got to see a lot of turkey vultures and red tail hawks as well as a solitary deer.

Enjoyed the hike..

A few pictures..

A short video highlight reel..

We are fortunate to have these lovely places to hike in within a 30 minute driving distance!